To meet the needs that many enterprises face today, enterprises typically have numerous departments, intricate hierarchies, and complex business process flows. Because the objectives, needs, and resources of a business may change over time, enterprises usually adopt review procedures for evaluating inefficiencies in their structure, hierarchy, and process flows. Traditionally, enterprises review these aspects of their businesses with basic tools and simple methodologies. For example, enterprises will typically circulate paper or electronic surveys to enterprise employees, or hold in-person interviews to gather information. This information is then usually reviewed manually. For large-scale enterprises that employ hundreds of employees, collecting and reviewing information in this manner is infeasible and overly time- and resource-intensive.
Instead of gathering information from employees using traditional methodologies and procedures (e.g., holding interviews or circulating surveys), information can be gathered and reviewed from an employee's digital data tools. Enterprises today often provide their employees with a plethora of digital data tools that enable employees to connect and communicate information with each other. Towards this end, employees generally use these digital data tools to share and exchange different types of information. Though these digital data tools are often intended to facilitate communication between employees, the information conveyed in these exchanges between employees may also be used for evaluating and improving different aspects of an enterprise. For example, the content of e-mail exchanges between employees may be used to understand the hierarchy or process flow between two employees. Additionally, the timing, frequency, direction, and metadata associated with these communications can provide additional insight. Because these digital communications are often generated throughout the course of daily business, the nature of these communications typically provides an unfiltered and unbiased view into the actual way that people work, i.e. how business processes are actually implemented, in comparison to how they are planned or expected to work.
While businesses typically retain records of these digital communications in accordance with their IT or security policies, businesses often fail to make use of the data contained in these records. One reason enterprises often neglect or underutilize the information in these digital data tools is because each employee typically uses a number of different data tools that store data in different formats or locations. For large enterprises employing hundreds of employees, the amount of data in differing formats and locations may seem too large for enterprises to aggregate and analyze in an efficient and meaningful way.
Accordingly, a solution is needed for facilitating collection and analysis of employee communications for the benefit of an organization. The solution should preferably reduce risk and enhance efficiency for the organization as a whole.